The Chelsea Hotel’s Art Is Missing

The Chetrit Group, the partnership that bought the Chelsea Hotel in Aug. 2011 and is currently in the process of selling the building, has apparently confiscated all of the art from the hallways. This hasn’t gone over well with the owners of that art, The Villagerreports.

A few details:

One of the prominent pilferings is Larry Rivers’ “Syndics of the Drapery Guild as Dutch Masters,” 1978/79. A paint and wood construction, the work is an early example of his relief paintings “like a big cigar box,” explained David Joel, executive director of the Larry Rivers Foundation in Bridgehampton, Long Island (who spoke to Chelsea Now by phone). “Rivers [who died in 2002] had a long history at the Chelsea,” said Joel. “The work had been on loan since about 1998 and displayed in the lobby on one of the walls, near the main entrance, I think.”

The story ends by saying that the residents are also angry about the WiFi being removed from the lobby.